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--you have to wonder with Bushites involved). He is a former president known for the vast corruption in his previous regime. His politics are Clintonite (veneer of social liberalism covering over the bloodsucking of the Corporate vampires). In the last election, a REAL leftist (majorityist), Ollanta Humala, came out of nowhere, with no political experience and no money, and first of all knocked the rightwing candidate out of the race (the fascist--Bush's first pick), in the preliminary voting. The Bushites/rich elite/corporate predators were desperate, and they had to go with this very corrupt "leftist," Garcia. He was, quite simply, bought and paid for.
The real leftist, Humala, garnered 30% of the vote in the primary. He was then endorsed by Evo Morales--the first 100% indigenous president of Bolivia--and Hugo Chavez. This boosted his vote by 15%, to a general election total of 45% (Garcia got over 50% and won). The Bush State Dept/AP "talking point" was that Hugo Chavez LOST Humala votes--i.e., that Peruvians "resented" neighbor state "interference" in their election. But this is very likely not true. For one thing, the additional votes that Humala got were not likely from the RIGHT. They were more than likely from the indigenous (natural born leftists), responding to Morales (an indigenous president) and Humala himself (who is also 100% indigenous). And it's a good guess that the indigenous living in remote mountain areas of the Andes--whose votes were drawn forth by an indigenous candidacy--don't give much of a crap about colonial borders. They know that the dream of the great revolutionary hero, Simon Bolivar, was a "United States of South America"--that is, Latin American independence and self-determination, the goals of the current Bolivarians, Morales in Bolivia, Chavez in Venezuela and also Rafael Correa in Ecuador. These three presidents are HUGELY popular throughout the Andes, and especially among the indigenous.
So, what REALLY happened in that election, was that an unknown came out of nowhere and nearly took the Presidency of Peru--with a BOOST from Morales and Chavez! Humala also had the handicap of having a brother who was in trouble with the police, for connection to some leftist insurgent group--indigenous warrior types, not yet fully integrated into the political process (as is occurring elsewhere on the continent). The indigenous are understandably wary of political establishments that have been torturing and slaughtering them for decades and centuries. Humala's brother was implicated in a police shooting. Some voters held this against Humala himself (who has no history of violence), no doubt prompted by the corporate news monopolies.
The Corporate "talking point"--which is for OUR edification (not that of South Americans)--was likely completely wrong, and probably deliberately so. Chavez--and especially Morales--BOOSTED Humala's chances. But for his brother's associations, Humala would likely have won. This was demonstrated very soon afterward by the overwhelming victory of pro-Bolivarian candidate Rafael Correa (friend and ally of both Morales and Chavez) in Ecuador.
As for Alan Garcia, he will put the final "free trade" death grip on Peru's economy, and it will implode, as happened in Argentina and everywhere else. Then Humala or some other real leftist will emerge to pick up the pieces, as has happened in every one of these countries. It is only by THROWING OFF U.S./Corporate Predator control that these countries can achieve democracy and prosperity. "Free trade" is the follow-up pirates' raid on the country's resources and workers AFTER the initial brutal assault by rightwing police states aided by the U.S. (often in the name of the murderous and hypocritical U.S. "war on drugs," which arms the government against the people).
It is so cynical, so corrupt, and so disgusting as to be difficult to discuss. I clearly remember Clinton's campaign promise, in 1992, to put labor and environmental protections in NAFTA. As soon as he was in office, he broke that promise and signed NAFTA with no such protections. The devastation to third world economies and peoples has been HORRIBLE. That's what Seattle '99 was about. (Clinton's remedy was a police riot, and don't think that Hillary, with Bush-style police state powers, won't do the same and worse, much worse.) We are not immune from these impacts. The USA is the NEXT "banana republic" in the western hemisphere, after they destroy Peru and finish turning Colombia into a military launching pad for their NEXT theater of war: the Andes, to topple the peaceful, democratic leftist governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
The global corporate predators who are behind all this clearly intend for Peru to be a player in their dreadful scheme. They are larding Peru with "war on drugs" military aid, as with Colombia. "Free trade" is just the means of the final looting, and enriching the rightwing minority, to foster fascist paramilitarism. The local rich take care of torturing and killing all potential leaders of the people, to protect their own ill gotten gains. The big drug dealers, and Monsanto, Chiquita, Drummond, Chevron, Exxon-Mobile & brethren take over the land and the resources.
I don't think that these Darth Vaders will succeed. The democracy movement in the Andes region, and throughout South America, is too strong. But they CAN cause a lot of suffering before they lose. And we can clearly see the signals and red flags to their plans in our own war profiteering corporate news monopolies, and, alas, in most of the Democratic Party leadership, which apes the rightwing "talking points." The classic is that Hugo Chavez--a leader of the Bolivarians--is a "dictator." Nothing could be further from the truth. But this "Big Lie" is relentlessly pushed not just by Bushites but by DEMOCRATS.
"Free trade" looting, and theft of all the oil, gas, minerals and other resources within reach of the U.S. military, IS the program of the U.S. political establishment, Republican and Democratic. This is WHY they have destroyed our election system, with electronic voting machines run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations--not just to shove the Iraq War down our throats, but to shove the whole program down our throats. Right now, SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people oppose the Iraq War and want it ended. We vote, and then it's the DEMOCRATS who ESCALATE the war instead, and lard $100 billion more of our tax dollars onto Bush/Cheney, to keep killing and torturing Iraqis until they sign over their oil rights. The Democrats!
And IF the American people KNEW these Corporate Bastards' intentions in South America, our people would oppose it just as they do the Iraq War. The war propaganda didn't work! So they had to have ANOTHER way of controlling us. "Trade secret" vote tabulation (contrived in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution--October 2002) was the answer--direct corporate control over our election results. Now the same pattern is emerging: relentless propaganda (that this huge democracy movement in South America is somehow not democratic), impoverishing the local people with "free trade" (in the case of Iraq it was sanctions), and a military buildup (in this case, via the "war on drugs"). When the destabilization attempts, and the rightwing paramilitary hits, and whatever else they have planned, finally comes, the American people will either be ignorant of what is really happening, or mystified, and, above all, POWERLESS to prevent U.S.-instigated death and destruction.
South Americans are not Middle Easterners. They have worked long and hard on strong democratic institutions, and are now strongly resisting interference. I think the likeliest thing that will happen is that Peru's economy will collapse, and yet another country will go into the leftist column (added to Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Chile, and soon Paraguay; also Nicaragua; and possibly Mexico). We in the north have been kept ignorant and stupid about what is happening in Latin America, and we are going to be left in the dust by these vibrant democracies and SELF-DETERMINED economies, where the resources of the country are used to benefit the PEOPLE who live there, where everyone has free health care and free educations, where local enterprise is promoted, and where it is actually possible to elect office holders who act in the interest of the majority. Latin America has vast U.S.-caused poverty to deal with. But it also--particularly in the Andes--is rich in natural resources. Put those resources to good use, and we are going to see--and ARE seeing--economic, social and political miracles. (Venezuelans' throwing off the U.S.-backed violent military coup attempt, in 2002, was the harbinger. Now all economic indicators are up, with the PRIVATE sector the fastest-growing. Argentina's amazing economic recovery from World Bank/IMF devastation--helped by loans from Venezuela--is another example.)
We may one day learn how to do that here. Right now, don't kid yourself, for all our sense of privilege and consumer goods, for all our illusions that WE are a democracy, we have become merely the peons and cannon fodder for the global corporate predators who rule over us. Our overlords rightfully fear this democracy revolution in South America. They are desperately trying to prop up and militarize the rightwing forces in Peru, Colombia and Mexico. I think it's inevitable that the democracy movement will sweep these rightwing regimes away, as it has all the others. And if the Latin Americans can do it--after all they've suffered--so can we.
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